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Sunday, April 14, 2013

Kobe Bryant's Achilles Ruptures Under the Weight of the Lakers' Ineptitude

"Go down as you live."--"Super" John Williamson's motto, imploring his teammates to not let pressure-packed situations alter their mindset or their approach; Hall of Fame Coach Phil Jackson, who was a teammate of Williamson's, adopted that phrase as a mantra that he often shared with his players

The L.A. Lakers 2012-2013 season went sideways from the beginning--a winless preseason, the premature firing of an excellent, defensive-minded coach, an incredible wave of injuries to key players--and it never got straightened out: the team lacked cohesion and only sporadically played hard. Kobe Bryant tried to single-handedly cover up every weakness and shortcoming: some nights he exploded for huge point totals and other nights he masterfully dished off assists, all the while alternating between being a roving help defender patrolling passing lanes and being assigned the task of checking the speedy point guards who no other Laker can corral.

In the last few games, Bryant played almost every second of every
contest while trying to carry his desultory squad to the eighth seed in the Western Conference playoffs; his team was helpless and/or clueless without him on the
court, so he did not rest despite battling a host of nagging injuries and, while it cannot
be proven that the extra work load caused his Achilles tendon to
rupture, it is logical to assume that it is not optimal for an aging, banged up
athlete to push himself to that extent. Yet Bryant would have had it no other way and he surely preferred to go down swinging as opposed to resting on the bench while his teammates fumbled and bumbled the season away. Bryant is frustrated about suffering the most serious injury of his career but he understands that there is no time in life for rumination about the past or for worrying about what might happen in the future; it is vitally important to live in the moment and "Make each day your masterpiece" because the opportunity that you have right now may be the only opportunity that you get. Bryant has made it clear that his top priority is to win one more championship ring, matching Michael Jordan's six and topping Magic Johnson's five--and Bryant elevated his game to new heights in a desperate attempt to lift the team on his shoulders but just two days after Bryant authored
a stat line never before seen in NBA history (47 points,
eight rebounds, five assists, four blocked shots, three steals) he suffered the now much replayed and much discussed season-ending Achilles tendon injury. One moment Bryant was at the top of his game and the next moment he was embarking on what will be a grueling rehabilitation regimen. Come back with your shield or on your shield is the old warrior's creed and Bryant lives up to that as much as any other modern athletic gladiator.

Was it foolish to play to exhaustion just to try to get the last
playoff spot and then likely lose in the first round of the playoffs?
Should Coach Mike D'Antoni have limited Bryant's
minutes if Bryant was unwilling to voluntarily do so? Would Phil
Jackson--who often put four bench players on the court with just one
starter even in the NBA Finals if Michael Jordan needed a rest--have
encouraged or even permitted Bryant to shoulder so much weight that his
leg literally collapsed under the heavy burden?

It
is easy for an outsider to conclude that the Lakers' frenetic pursuit of
the opportunity to get blown out in the first round is much ado about
nothing and it is reasonable to wonder if Bryant's minutes could/should
have been managed differently--but that is not how a Cleaner
like Bryant thinks. A Cleaner does not see problems, he sees
challenges.

I tuned in late to Friday night's Lakers-Warriors game and I only saw the final moments--but as soon as I realized that Bryant was not on the court with the result up for grabs I figured that he either had been ejected or he had suffered a season-ending injury. When I eventually watched what happened--how Bryant suffered a knee injury and a foot injury but did not miss a second of action until his Achilles exploded--I was impressed but not surprised: Bryant's high pain threshold and his reluctance to leave the court under any circumstances distinguish him even
from other tough NBA players; Paul Pierce left game one of the 2008 NBA
Finals in a wheelchair only to triumphantly run back onto the court a
few minutes later and Dwyane Wade left the court in a wheelchair after he dislocated his shoulder. In contrast, Bryant walked off of the court unassisted, walked back onto the court
unassisted and made two free throws with a completely ruptured Achilles
tendon!

Bryant epitomizes "Go down as you live." Pro Bowl linebacker Chris Spielman once said that if he ever got injured seriously enough to need help to get off of the field then he would retire--and when that happened he did retire. You were never going to see Spielman rolling around in a wheelchair and then running back on to the field like he had experienced a miracle at Lourdes; if he was not badly hurt then he was going to keep playing or he was going to leave the field under his own power to get treatment but if he was seriously injured then he was going to find another line of work. Bryant is the first person I have ever seen who tried to walk with a completely ruptured Achilles tendon in order to see if he could "get the feeling back" in his foot.

This is not a requiem for Bryant's career; the time for that has not yet come, because a man who walks off of the court with a ruptured Achilles tendon is surely going to run on to the court at least one more time after that Achilles tendon heals. Yes, the reality of the situation is that it will be difficult for Bryant to come back from this injury and it will be even more difficult for him to come back as an above the rim, explosive player. I expect Bryant to return to action in record-setting time but there are limits to what even his mind and body can accomplish; he will likely have to adjust his playing style to accommodate his rebuilt tendon and his soon to be 35 year old body that has logged more than 50,000 NBA minutes. Think of how Air Jordan became Ground Jordan, setting up shop in the midpost area; Bryant already has a deft midpost game but he will probably have to rely on it more than ever. He may have to accept reducing his minutes to the 30 mpg range, along with a consequent reduction of his scoring average to around 20 ppg. Both for Bryant's health and with an eye toward the future, the Lakers need to push Dwight Howard to the forefront; Howard must dominate at both ends of the court or there is no reason for Bryant to return because the Lakers will not contend for a championship unless Howard maximizes his potential.

Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol have complained that they do not get enough touches; now they have the final two regular season games--plus a playoff run, if they can earn it--to show exactly what they can do without Kobe Bryant carrying them, bailing them out and spoon feeding them for easy baskets. If Bryant cannot return to action by the start of the 2013-14 season--though he apparently has every intention of being ready to play by that time--then Howard and Gasol will have a more extended opportunity to showcase their skills and justify their whining but, however long they end up playing sans Bryant, they are going to discover that it is not so easy to score when opposing guards are sitting in their laps in the post because the defense does not have to trap Bryant.

8 Comments:

I believe a guy like Howard could step up if Bryant returns under the circumstances that you mentioned. Bryant playing lesser minutes and having lesser production.

I say this because we both agreed that Howard is one of the few players in the league when at 100 percent, deserves the right to be called a franchise/superstar player and can lead a team to a championship as being vleatly the best player on that team. Yes, Howard wasn't at 100 percent this year and he also benefitted from not having to be the.number one.option night after night. He is still by the best center in the.league.

This a serious injury for Bryant. But just wonder other than him accepting a lesser role when he comes.back, would he still have the ability to perform at the level he did pre injury. Or would he just have no choice but to accept a lesser role because he no longer has the ability to perform at that level? It's one thing if a great player still has the ability to perform at an elite. It's another thing if he doesn't. It's easy for people to say when he comes back he should take a lesser role for the sake of not getting injured again. He does want to match Jordan for championships. But if he cannot perform at an elite level anymore because of diminishef ability to do so, he'd probably elect to retire rather than go after a sixth title. It's rare to see a all time great leave the game still elite or performing at elite level..Maybe that's more important to him than winning a sixth title in a reduced role.

As a lifetime Lakers fan since 1980, who has watched virtually every game every year, I wonder how much people will appreciate Kobe Bryant when he's all done. I am a 100% Kobe backer, but even I often watched and said aloud, "He needs to pass the ball more," or, "He really seems like he's proving something here instead of doing the right thing." But the thing I'll remember is how ferocious he was trying to win - always. It happened all the time, even in the three-peat Shaq years: The rest of the team was in a funk, lackadaisical, uninspired, and Kobe would simply not let up. Sometimes they didn't rise with him. And he would win the game single-handedly; other times he would lose. But he ALWAYS played that way.

His best individual season, '06, he played that way even though he was lugging behind him such a bunch of stiffs that Luke Walton was a welcome sight on the floor.

The amazing thing about Kobe is that he has always played with the all-out abandon of players revered for their drive and energy - like Derek Fisher or (nowadays) Kenneth Faried - but Kobe also had Hall Of Fame talent to go with it. He just really never let us down, because, even in defeat he was, as they say, leaving it all out there on the floor.

The hiring of Mike D'Antoni was idiotic. Why would you cater your coaching decision around a 39 year old point guard who is arguably the team's 4th best player? According to the Lakers, the hiring of D'Antoni was Jerry Buss's decision--proof that even the greats make mistakes. If the Lakers are not even going to run D'Antoni's offensive system then why is he the coach? Mike Brown may have his faults, but there is no denying that he his a hard worker who gets his teams to play defense. When watching the Lakers it is obvious that the team has no defensive philosophy. It is so frustrating to listen to D'Antoni's post-game interviews where he routinely will answer "I don't know" to even the most basic questions. Basketball is not rocket science. How does he "not know" the answer to basic questions?

And saying Kobe refused to come out of the game is no excuse. Expecting a fierce competitor like Kobe to ask out of a game with the season on the line is like expecting a boxer to tap himself out of a match. It is the coach's responsibility to do what is best for the team regardless of what the players want. That's called leadership.

I think that Bryant would accept a lesser role than the one he had this season; after all, that was the expectation prior to all of the injuries and turmoil that the Lakers experienced. I don't think that Bryant would accept a reserve role, though; if he is reduced to something less than the 20 ppg in 30 mpg that I mentioned then I suspect that he would retire.

Considering that Jerry Buss had a terminal illness and likely was not heavily involved in the team's day to day operations, he probably deserves some slack regarding the D'Antoni hiring. Jerry Buss certainly made a lot of very good decisions during his tenure as the Lakers' majority owner.

david,on point as usual. unlike downright asinine posts by k.a. and j.v. from falsehoop.i think this presents a moment where kobe could elevate a nation's sense of moarality and dignity. maybe even show the world what really should matter most.everything happens for a reason. maybe this is god giving him a chance to change the world. touch a few more lives. inspire a whole nation.now that he knows the feeling of being incapacitated, now that more people more than ever are doubting his ability to come back next season in his dominating form, now that more people are calling for the lakers to amnesty him, kobe could tell the whole world that he is coming back next season stronger than ever. and that he will donate next year's salary to the war vets who lost their arms, limbs answering the call to duty of their country. tell everyone that his is just a tendon popping and he will walk again in time unlike those war vets. tell everyone who would listen who the real heroes are. that he is only a sportsman who is now temporarily incapacitated. that the war vets are the true heroes.

A complete rupture is almost a death sentence. I think this is the same injury that ended Isiah Thomas' career at 33 years old, in 1993. Dominique Wilkins bounced back from an Achilles tear to average 29, 24, and 26 the next 3 seasons, but I think that was a partial. And that was Nique's 10th season while this is Kobe's 17th.

Pundits are blaming D'Antoni for running Kobe into the ground, at 47 minutes a game for weeks, like he did with Amare a couple years back.

Makes me wonder if Howard will even re-sign with the Lakers this summer. If Kobe sits out next year, insurance will pay 80% of the contract. If the Lakers fall out of the playoffs, there's always the Andrew Wiggins consolation prize in the 2014 draft.

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